10 Reasons Why the Governor is Not Your Friend (a meta)

[zihna]

Word Count: ~4,700
Warnings:  Strong language, mentions of murder and implied rape, discussion of severe mental illness, and general Governor-related creepiness.  Spoilers up through 3x8, "Made to Suffer."
A/N: As always, many thanks to twizzler for her bang-up editing job and to thegeeksshallinherittheearth for being my bitter blogging buddy and

Comments

[sakuraberries]

I want to marry this post.

Everything you said was beautiful and brilliant, and I don't really interact with fandom, so I can't believe there are people delusional and naive enough to think the Governor is a good person (after what he did to Maggie, too? God, that scene made me sick).

[zihna]

Aw, thank you very much :)

Most of the Governor apologism isn't happening here on LJ, fortunately, it's a fairly tumblr-centric thing, but recently I've seen it spread, I guess? Also, it was really fun to kind of dig into him a little bit. (That scene was the worst. I didn't really hate him before it, but after he pretty much earned a spot on my eternal shit list.)

[trekchic]

You had me at the subject line.
Great post.

[zihna]

Thank you very much!

[ashgaelsonaria]

Nice post. You forgot to note that most spociopathic people are very charasmatic and very good at acting normal. The majority go into areas of work in which the disorder is actually benificial. This includes law inforcement, the military, and things like careers in corporate management.
They should not (but oftain are) be confused with psycopaths - difrint trifecta of disorders.

I do not believe the governor is getting rid of Merle. Their plan (which was used with the guard) was to infiltrate the group. No way Daryl is going to play that part so he needs to send in a difrint wooden horse and what better way they to sentance Merle too death infront of Daryl and then have the two of them "escape" back to the group.
Face it, the stratagem is so old its ledgendary. It also has an uncanny way of working because more oftain then not the peace offering is not filled with troops waiting to sneek out and kill you in your sleep.

[zihna]

Thank you :)

For the sake of brevity I did not go into the subtypes of sociopathy--technically ASPD, now--but I did mention that the vast majority of sociopaths lead completely normal, non-violent, assimilated lives. The Governor happens to be a special case because he displays a lot of the traits of an archetypal sociopath and happens to be in the middle of a psychotic break. Most "sociopaths" don't actually ever hurt anyone at all, and become extremely successful in their chosen paths :)

Ooh, that's an interesting theory. I think the Governor's looking for a scapegoat to blame the mess on and settled on Merle because a) he doesn't have Rick and b) Merle lied to him about Michonne, which cost him his eye, his daughter, and possibly Andrea's trust.

Really cool theory, though. It would make a lot of sense if it happened :)

[sweetsomber]

Amen! Hallelejuh! *standing ovation* This was BRILLIANT!!

There are actually people -defending- the Governor? He has a "fandom"??!! >.< These are the kind of people who are "fans" of Serial Killers! *shudder* I did see someone posting a rant about "why don't they just leave him & Woodbury alone cause they're not hurting anyone" (duh! Glenn? Maggie?) but… It never occured to me that this idea had it's own little Fandom base. :(

Michonne pegged him perfectly when she called him the "Jim Jones" type! And I really believe she went back to kill him for the *real* greater good! First to save her (so-called!) friend, (that idiot!) Andrea. But also because he NEEDS killing! In the ZA, it's a bad idea to let someone like him keep running loose. No judge, no jury. Just basic, primative human survival.

[zihna]

Thank you very much!!

Fortunately "Team Woodbury" doesn't seem to exist in large quantities outside of tumblr, but yeah, there are a lot of people out there who seem to root for the Governor. In most cases they just want him to coexist with Rick's group, but in more severe rants I've seen people demand that Rick and his people die so this can be the Woodbury show. People are weird like that. I think it's because the actor is British and it's easy to sympathize with him.

Ahh, yes, Michonne knows what's up. She seems like a pretty good judge of character, and though I think she went back to kill him because she wanted to--don't know why just yet, I can never pin down her motivations--she recognized, I think, that he is a genuinely dangerous individual and it's better for everyone, herself included, if he's not around anymore.

[tigerdreams]

I've seen people demand that Rick and his people die so this can be the Woodbury show.

D: D: D:

Just when I think fandom cannot possibly sink to more batshit depths of WTF are you even thinking, I read this.

[still_glorious]

Okay, first off, I'm not a fan of the governor. I'm really looking forward to see him die a horrible death. That being said, you should read the prequel books. Not only will you find out that he has not always been bad but that he is also not a soziopath. First of all, soziopath will blend in perfectly, wether the governor might hold up an apperance for the crowd but people around him certainly know that he is crazy. He is not very skilled at hiding that at all. Circumstances simply made him crazy. If you read the book you'd know why but I don't want to spoil. (since Kirkman co-wrote the book and already mentions part of it in regards to the governor, I believe it's the correct story about him). Now, I don't want to defend him and I love what you've written but there's issues overlooked. He's a crazy nutjob for sure but considering the writings and the fact that he cannot really hide well who he is, and considering his affection for Penny, I see him as a psychopath rather than a soziopath